Tips to keep airline miles and more from expiring from a travel pro

Make sure to keep the travel points you earned — Photo courtesy of RgStudio / Getty Images

Having a bank of airline miles that you’ve worked hard to collect is no small accomplishment. Maybe you took a lot of flights or used an airline credit card to earn those precious miles. But there’s nothing worse than going to book that flight you’ve been dreaming of only to find your account empty because your miles expired.

As the founder of Families Fly Free, I work with families every day to show them how to get the most out of their frequent flyer miles and travel rewards. There are lots of nuances and rules that vary across airlines and different programs, and missing one of them, like an expiration date, can be a heart-breaking mistake.

Here a few simple tactics to avoid losing your hard-earned miles, points, and perks.

Which airlines have miles that don’t expire?

Choose one or two airline frequent flyer programs for points — Photo courtesy of MMADIA / iStock Via Getty Images

There are several airline miles programs whose points never expire. Southwest Airlines is my preferred airline to fly and bring the whole family using frequent flyer miles. That’s because points in the Southwest Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program never expire and can be used to book anyone.

Southwest also allows customers to rebook a flight if the fare decreases after purchase, which you can get back as either points or a travel credit. It’s best to do this in points because they are flexible and never expire. Southwest travel credits must be used by the person they were originally attached to and cannot be mixed with points to book flights.

Other major airlines whose miles don’t expire include Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and JetBlue Airways.

Miles in the American Airlines AAdvantage program, along with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, Frontier Airlines Miles, and Spirit Airlines Free Spirit loyalty program expire if there is no “activity” in the account for a period of time. Activity can include redeeming or earning at least 1 mile during that period.

Focus on one or two airline frequent flyer programs

Collecting and redeeming travel rewards can be simple. A key to making it simple is to focus on one or two airline frequent flyer programs, instead of scattering points across different airlines. This will build your miles faster to help you take that dream trip sooner, and it makes things much easier to track and manage.

For families, I always recommend Southwest as the primary airline (if they fly into your airport or a neighboring airport), and then add a second airline that has frequent flights from your home airport.

For instance, those in Detroit and Atlanta should focus on the Delta frequent flyer program as your secondary plan. If you’re in Philadelphia, Miami, or Charlotte, focus on the American frequent flyer program, and if you’re in the Pacific Northwest, the Alaska frequent flyer program is a great option. The United frequent flyer program works well for those in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco.

Use flexible rewards programs

Use credit cards with flexible rewards programs — Photo courtesy of PeopleImages / iStock Via Getty Images

A major mistake many people make is using an airline card for their everyday spending. Strangely, an airline card is not the best credit card for airline miles. Sure, you’re earning miles with your preferred airline, but there’s a better option that still earns you miles on your favorite airline while also earning more miles per dollar for other spending.

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By focusing instead on flexible travel programs, like Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One Venture Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, and Citi ThankYou points, you can earn rewards that can be used in many ways. This includes booking flights, but also to purchase hotel stays, car rentals, and, in some cases, even theme park tickets.

The best credit cards for rewards

There are a lot of choices when it comes to the best rewards credit cards. With the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you’ll earn two points per $1 on travel and three points per $1 on dining. On Capital One Venture X, you’ll earn a flat two points per $1 on all purchases. These are some of the best rewards credit cards and are much better choices.

Airline cards are designed to encourage you to spend money with the airlines only. If you are using travel rewards to try and always fly your family for free, then you shouldn’t be spending money with the airlines. Mostly because they don’t routinely give you additional points in other categories of spending.

Track your points

When it comes to frequent flyer miles, it pays to be organized. There are a lot of rules, dates, and timing details you need to know and remember.

Find a system to track your points, whether it’s creating a spreadsheet or using an automated system like Award Wallet. Although keep in mind that automated systems don’t universally cover all airlines or travel rewards programs.

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It’s also helpful to put things like expiration dates on your to-do list to remind yourself to take action before points expire. For example, I recently had Marriott loyalty points about to expire. To create some activity in my account, I attached my Marriott account to my Uber profile, which earns me a small amount of points with each ride and thus generates activity to keep the points active.

A great free automated program for keeping track of your travel cards, including annual fee dates and minimum spend deadlines, is TravelFreely.com.

Use your miles

Dream of all the places you can go by using travel points — Photo courtesy of Pyrosky / Getty Images

Finally, use your miles. I have seen far too many people hoard miles, which is not the point. Airline miles lose value over time, so the longer you wait to use them, the less they are worth. Even worse, if they expire, you can’t use them at all.

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. You never know what’s coming. I’ve had so many people in their later years tell me they are sad they put off travel. Many found they couldn’t travel during the pandemic and now struggle with health and other issues that continue to prevent it.

The best advice for not letting your miles expire: Use them to travel beyond your wildest dreams and make memories with your loved ones.